From autism to allergies, ADHD to long Covid, more people are being labelled with medical conditions than ever before. But can a diagnosis do us more harm than good?

The boundaries between sickness and health are being redrawn. Mental health categories are shifting and expanding all the time, radically altering what we consider to be 'normal'. Genetic tests can now detect pathologies decades before people experience symptoms, and sometimes before they're even born. And increased health screening draws more and more people into believing they are unwell.

An accurate diagnosis can bring greater understanding and of course improved treatment. But many diagnoses aren't as definitive as we think. And in some cases they risk turning healthy people into patients.

Drawing on the stories of real people, as well as decades of clinical practice and the latest medical research, Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan overturns long held assumptions and reframes how we think about illness and health.

Child Health for All offers a comprehensive, up-to date and accessible introduction to population child health for undergraduate and postgraduate students of various health science disciplines.

The text addresses a broad scope of content, including environmental- policy and law-, health system-, clinical-, family-, and community aspects of public health, and offers effective strategies for the promotion, protection and improvement of children’s health. Engaging with current global plans and strategies, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Survive, Thrive and Transform strategy, the text discusses strategies for the promotive, preventive and service delivery aspects of healthcare. The work addresses the multiple dimensions and determinants of health, covering all stages of the child's life course from pre-conception to late adolescence, and considers responses to the health needs of children by the health and associated social sectors.

Presenting a critical appraisal of issues and challenges common to many low- and middle-income contexts, and drawing in detail on South African conditions and influences, policy and regulatory frameworks, health services infrastructure and health system considerations, the text has wide application to the realities of the southern African and similar regions.

Lessons from COVID-19: Impact on Healthcare Systems and Technology uncovers the impact that COVID-19 has made on healthcare and technology industries. State-of-the-art case studies, empirical research, and new trends in technology-mediated solution are discussed to help inform and guide readers in understanding the effects that the COVID-19 outbreak has had across healthcare and technology industries. The book discusses challenges to identify vaccines, changes in legislation on clinical trials and re-purposing of licensed drugs, effects on primary healthcare, best practices adopted by different countries to control the pandemic, and different effects on patients within diverse age groups and comorbidities. In addition, the book covers technology-mediated solutions and infrastructures applied, digital transformations, modeling techniques, statistical projections, and the benefits and use of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. This is a valuable resource for healthcare professionals, medical doctors, researchers and graduate students from both biomedical and technological fields who are interested in learning more about the use of new technologies to fight a pandemic.

Novel AI and Data Science Advancements for Sustainability in the Era of COVID-19 discusses how the role of recent technologies applied to health settings can help fight virus outbreaks. Moreover, it provides guidelines on how governments and institutions should prepare and quickly respond to drastic situations using technology to support their communities in order to maintain life and functional as efficiently as possible. The book discusses topics such as AI-driven histopathology analysis for COVID-19 diagnosis, bioinformatics for subtype rational drug design, deep learning-based treatment evaluation and outcome prediction, sensor informatics for monitoring infected patients, and machine learning for tracking and prediction models. In addition, the book presents AI solutions for hospital management during an epidemic or pandemic, along with real-world solutions and case studies of successful measures to support different types of communities. This is a valuable source for medical informaticians, bioinformaticians, clinicians and other healthcare workers and researchers who are interested in learning more on how recently developed technologies can help us fight and minimize the effects of global pandemics.

This book is a collective work draws on the perspective of social sciences, mobilizing perspectives from the sociology of science, the history of psychiatry, medical ethnography and public policy analysis. This initiative, which has no precedent in social sciences, is surrounded by an original, if not apparently paradoxical statement: considering that the deployment of these processes, strictly formal and depersonalized, is justified in becoming the rule in a society known as "individuals".

Systems Evolutionary Biology: Biological Network Evolution Theory, Stochastic Evolutionary Game Strategies, and Applications to Systems Synthetic Biology discusses the evolutionary game theory and strategies of nonlinear stochastic biological networks under random genetic variations and environmental disturbances and their application to systematic synthetic biology design. The book provides more realistic stochastic biological system models to mimic the real biological systems in evolutionary process and then introduces network evolvability, stochastic evolutionary game theory and strategy based on nonlinear stochastic networks in evolution. Readers will find remarkable, revolutionary information on genetic evolutionary biology that be applied to economics, engineering and bioscience.

The UK has a deservedly strong reputation for work on understanding social inequalities in health. But there is some way to go in ensuring that research and other types of knowledge are used to reduce inequalities in child health. This revised and updated edition of an important report looks at macro public policy interventions, community interventions, and individual level interventions in a variety of settings, and for a range of populations: infancy, early years, childhood and adolescence, and those with particular needs including looked after children. It considers 'what works' in practice. There are new case studies, updated research, and reference to cost effectiveness - particularly relevant for doing the right thing in a climate of austerity. Drawing on evidence from the UK and beyond, the book presents these in an accessible form not just for those who make decisions now, but also for the students of today who are the decision makers of tomorrow.

The role of women in Iran has commonly been viewed solely through the lens of religion, symbolized by veiled females subordinated by society. In this work, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, an Iranian-American historian, aims to explain how the role of women has been central to national political debates in Iran. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, the book examines issues impacting women's lives under successive regimes, including hygiene campaigns that cast mothers as custodians of a healthy civilization; debates over female education, employment, and political rights; conflicts between religion and secularism; the politics of dress; and government policies on contraception and population control. Among the topics she will examine are the development of a women's movement in Iran, perhaps most publicly expressed by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. The narrative comes up to the present, looking at reproductive rights, the spread of AIDS, and fashion since the Iranian Revolution.

Health Promotion in Midwifery explores the principles of health promotion within the practical context of midwifery. It clearly outlines and discusses the midwife's role in health promotion, making it essential reading for all student and practising midwives, as well as clinical practitioners. Emphasizing the link between theory and practice, the second edition incorporates chapters on domestic violence, sexual health, breastfeeding, and mental health promotion. Text boxes make the text accessible and user-friendly and case studies and summaries put the material in practical context. Additional readings encourage readers to further research and reflection on their own practice. Throughout the book, the importance of the role of the midwife in health promotion is emphasized. This second edition brings together contributions from a variety of experienced practitioners.

Ethical Issues in International Biomedical Research is the definitive book on the ethics of research involving human subjects in developing countries. Using 21 actual case studies, it covers the most controversial topics, including the ethics of placebo research in Africa, what benefits should be provided to the community after completion of a research trial, how to address conflicts between IRBs in developed and developing countries, and undue inducement of poor people in developing countries. Each case is accompanied by two expert commentaries, written by many of the worlds leading experts in bioethics as well as new voices with research experience in developing countries. No other volume has this scope. Students in bioethics, public and international health, and ethics will find this book particularly useful.

This book is an account of a study which provided unique information on trends in growth and respiratory health in British children over 25 years, with methodological discussion and other major findings including risk factors for impaired growth, obesity, respiratory disease and the distribution of coronary heart disease factors. The book provides information on trends in growth, height weight for height and subcutaneous arm tissue, and in respiratory health, asthma attacks and related symptoms, in children aged 5 to 11 years, from 1972 to 1994. It provides information on risk factors for impaired growth, obesity and respiratory disease, and on the distribution of risk factors for coronary heart disease in children. The contribution of the National Health and Growth Study extended to topics such as the effects of changes in welfare policy, under-diagnosis and under-treatment of asthma, nocturnal enuresis, disturbed sleep, the impact of passive smoking on the health of children, and the relation of lung function to the child's intra-uterine environment and to passive smoking. The methodological issues in relation to the conduct of the study and analysis of the data are discussed in non-technical language. Each contribution of the study is discussed in relation to current literature, which is fully referenced throughout.